Not a Review Necessarily: I've just wanted to write about Doctor Sleep since the day I saw it!

Last year, while audiences (especially myself) were anxiously awaiting the release of It: Chapter 2, after the success of It: Chapter 1 based on the novel by Stephen King, another King movie sequel came out of nowhere to the surprise of horror fans. 
The movie Doctor Sleep, a direct sequel to Stanley Kubrick's 1980 movie The Shining, is based on King's 2013 book of the same name - a sequel to his book.

It was a great movie to tide audiences (and me) over during the summer of 2019 until the release of It which came out in theaters last September. 

I've wanted to write about this particular movie for sometime, but held back due to my personal rule to review only (more or less) obscure horror titles. But then I figured...what the hell? I just won't include it in my "official" count of 1,000 horror movies. 

When Doctor Sleep was released, I don't think a lot of people were aware this was even being produced. I know I didn't. A trailer just suddenly popped up one day and, "oh...they're making a movie of Doctor Sleep." 

Social media circles were abuzz with anticipation as to whether Stephen King would give his own seal  of approval, so to say, since it's well known he's no fan of Kubrick's The Shining.

This dislike is a large reason why King wrote the 1997 miniseries The Shining, which is generally panned by many critics. However, the series is more faithful to the source material, while Kubrick's movie is considered a true horror movie classic. 

With Doctor Sleep, which is not only a sequel to The Shining, it's a sequel to Kubrick's Shining, King is one of the writers for the movie. Obviously he would approve. He didn't work on Kubrick's movie back in 1980. So, when he gave his thumbs-up for Doctor Sleep, King fans were overjoyed. But why wouldn't he give a thumbs up to something he wrote?

And his thumb prints are definitely on this movie. It has the look of Kubrick but the scenes are Stephen King, with action and King-esque creepy, scary, and uncomfortable elements. 

Kubrick tends to draw out the suspense and horror. It gradually intensifies. King shows you what's happening. He wants you to see the horror, the abnormality that hinders a character's normal life. He wants it to bother you, and make you imagine yourself in that predicament. 

King's style of horror is like discovering a jar filled with whatever rancid stuff makes you gag and heave. Your life would be so much better without knowing that jar didn't exist. 

Anyways, there's a lot I like about Doctor Sleep. 

The story sees a grown Danny Torrence (Ewan McGregor) who, like his father before him, has hit the bottle hard while the ghosts of the Overlook Hotel still pursue him. 

As a boy shortly after the events of The Shining, he was visited by the spirit of Dick Hallorann, the former head chef of the Overlook Hotel, who gave him instructions on how to lock the ghosts up who are still apart of his life. He explains to Danny that the spirits are hungry now that the Overlook is abandoned, and they want to feed on his "shine." Danny has kept them locked up in his subconscious all his life. And he's hidden his gift well into his adulthood.

Meanwhile, a group of individuals calling themselves "the True Knot" caravan throughout the country looking to feed off those who shine as well. The stronger a person shines, the more steam, or essence, they possess. And the only way for the True Knot to obtain a person's steam is to slowly kill them. 

They're like vampires, attracted to those that shine through psychic sensory and clairvoyant tactics, sucking the essence, or "steam," out of their shining victims. The steam extends their life span considerably, and the less they obtain, the hungrier they get. If they go to long without steam, they'll die.  

The group is lead by a woman called "Rose the Hat", played incredibly well by Rebecca Ferguson, who's worried about the steam supply running low. People who shine are becoming scarce. And while Danny has locked away his gift, he's unaware of the existence of the True Knot.

Meanwhile, a young girl named Abra discovers she has an immense gift of shining - stronger than anyone. She can telepathically sense the horrible things the True Knot are doing to others. At first she keeps herself hidden from their ability to sense her out. But that changes. Abra also begins mentally communicating with Danny like a newly found pen-pal though the two have never met. They interact through a chalk board in Danny's apartment.

Rose the Hat eventually picks up on Alba's incredible amount of  shining, and quickly goes after her. The amount of shine Abra possesses is too enticing, and the True Knot are growing hungrier. But Alba is much stronger in her ability to shine than Rose or anyone else in the True Knot.

The group doesn't hesitate to go clear across the country to find Abra. 

First off, I appreciate the cast of new actors playing the characters as seen in Kubrick's movie. Since the original movie is nearly 40 years old, recasting the same actors was out of the question. Rather than resorting to the synthetic media platform, or what is commonly referred to as "deep-fake" video (replacing someone's likeness with previously recorded footage), different actors took on the roles.  

While Shelley Duvall and Jack Nicholson played Wendy and Jack Torrence in the original film, Alex Essoe and Henry Thomas (E.T.) fill the roles for Doctor Sleep. Scatman Crothers played Dick Hallorann in the original. In the sequel, he's played by Carl Lumbly. It helps make Doctor Sleep its own movie with its own style separate enough from Kubrick's film. It works out fine that way. 

Essoe, by the way, plays Wendy impressively. Though her scenes are few, she still has Wendy's mannerisms and exasperated voice similar to Shelley Duvall's performance. It's really well done.

Her performance reminds me of Lizzy Caplan playing Annie Wilkes in season two of Castle Rock on Hulu.

Wilke's is the main antagonist in King's novel Misery. She was played by Kathy Bates in the 1990 movie - a role which Bates deservedly won an Academy Award for best actress. In the Castle Rock series, Caplan nails her portrayal of a younger Annie Wilkes using of Bates's mannerisms and inflections from Misery. 

But the best performance in Doctor Sleep goes to Rebecca Ferguson. Her portrayal of Rose the Hat is superb. If an actor can make an audience rightly despise a character, and real feel that tension and discomfort by their depiction of an antagonist lacking empathy for their suffering victims, then I think that's a performance well played. That's precisely what she does. You just want to see her get what's coming to her at the end. You love to hate her. 

Her appearance is ordinary and innocent. Nothing stands out except the fact she always wears a hat. She looks like the cute neighbor girl from across the street you grew up with. But she's willing to kill a person for their essence so she can continue living. 

The one scene that really shows how far and how evil the True Knot, and Rose specifically, are involves their sensing the shine in a young boy named Bradley (Jacob Trembley) whom they abduct just after his little league game.

What follows is one of the most uncomfortable scenes in any genre I have ever seen. They torture him to obtain his steam. And the audience has to sit through the entire ordeal. 

All I can say is kudos to young Trembley for pulling off one serious,  tormenting scene involving a child. What he as an actor must have done to prepare for that scene deserves an award in itself. It was intense and too real.

Director Mike Flanagan had a really difficult task on his hands with Doctor Sleep. He had to appease both fans of Kubrick's movie as well as Stephen King fans. Since I mentioned King is no fan of Kubrick's film, I'm willing to bet there's a lot of King fans who feel the same way about Kubrick's movie. It deviates quite a bit from the source material. To me, that's not necessarily a big deal. But to others, it is. 

And on top of that, like any director should, Flanagan had to make the movie/ story his own. I think, for all practical purposes, he managed to pull it off so nicely.

The movie doesn't feel like a Kubrick movie, though there are some similarities in camera work, primarily with extended steadicam shots and aerial footage.

The pace of the story is fantastic. As soon as the movie begins, the audience is glued for the entire two and a half hours. It just keeps going, with hardly a pause in its stride. And Kubrick's movie doesn't really pop out until the final act at the abandoned Overlook. When the looming, dilapidated hotel appears on screen, with the famous theme music similar to the Dies Irae melody playing, my little fanboy heart jumped. 
When it comes to movies in general, the first factor I consider in whether or not a movie is good is its entertainment value. Did this entertain me? Then I go from there. There's no doubt in my mind that Doctor Sleep fits itself nicely among my top favorite Stephen King movies along with, of course, The Shining as well as The Green Mile, The Shawshank Redemption, Stand By Me, It: Chapter One, and Misery.  

66) The Phantom Creeps (1939, 1949)

"Now let the world beware my vengeance!"

Director

Ford Beebe, Saul A. Goodkind

Cast

Bela Lugosi - Dr. Alex Zorka

Robert Kent - Capt. Bob West

Dorothy Arnold - Jean Drew

Jack C. Smith - Monk

Way back in the mid to late 1980s, and possibly into the 1990s, every once in a while my family would take a drive across the Bay over to San Francisco's historic Cliff House restaurant to spend the day.

The Cliff House, which has history dating as far back as 1858, was rebuilt six times or so since then. And it continues to sit facing the Pacific Ocean from above the cliffs north of Ocean Beach in the Outer Richmond area of San Francisco. 

My early memories of those day trips included enjoying a cup of hot chocolate to ease the chilly winds San Francisco is famous for, having a lunch of fish and chips while sitting outside, and walking down the cliffs with my brother to the remnants of the old Sutro Baths that once stood just below the Cliff House. 

But above all this, what sticks out the most was the old penny arcade that was once located in the basement of the Cliff House.

The penny arcade, which featured coin machines and games dating throughout the 20th century (some as far back as the early 1900s, and others from San Francisco's former amusement park, Playland) is now housed in the Musee Mecanique located along Fisherman's Wharf. 

I distinctly remember walking into the penny arcade and being greeted by a large black and white portrait of a menacing character with his fierce eyes wide open and brow furled, his hands outstretched with curled fingers, and his glossy straight black hair combed back. His gaze was fixed on all who entered.

This picture scared me. I had no idea who this was. 

I remember once, finally, asking my mother about the man in the large picture. She told me he was Dracula. I asked her who "Dracula" was. She explained who he was, and that he was known for "biting the necks" of his victims. Of course this explanation didn't help. I was dumbfounded. Biting necks! Why? I couldn't shake that image from my mind.

I would see this image of Bela Lugosi as Dracula again, and again, and again for years to come. 

Bela Lugosi is most famous for his portrayal of the most famous vampire ever known in the 1931 movie, Dracula - a role he didn't wear any fangs for. Nor did he really need to, though now any portrayal of a vampire is never without fangs. 

His image that once hung inside the basement of San Francisco's Cliff House was my introduction to Dracula, and to vampires in general. I'm proud to say it initially scared me. 

Since then, I have watched a fair amount of Bela Lugosi movies including, of course, Dracula. 

Bela Lugosi (center) and Jack C. Smith (right).

He starred in a lot of films between 1917 and 1956. In fact, I recently reviewed his last movie The Black Sleep from 1956. His role sadly has no dialogue. 

But in The Phantom Creeps Lugosi stars as the main character/ villain, Dr. Alex Zorka. 

The Phantom Creeps started as a 12-part serial in 1939, lasting 265 minutes in total. 

Ten years later, it was cut down to 78 minutes and released as a TV movie. The latter is what I'm writing about.

I'll add that the serial's scrolling synopsis of each individual chapter was an inspiration for George Lucas. 

Dr. Zorka is a villainous scientist and inventor whose specialty is weaponry. 

Among those inventions are a huge robot slave, robot spiders that can either paralyze or kill a person, and a belt that can turn him invisible. 

But his most dangerous possession is a fragment from a meteor that has the power to render an entire army immobile via suspended animation. 

A group of foreign spies are aware Zorka possesses this fragment. They disguise themselves as a foreign language school, and search out pieces of the meteorite including the one he owns. 

Zorka's former partner is irked his old boss won't turn over his inventions to the U.S. Government for the betterment of mankind. 

He reports Zorka to the Military Intelligence Department who have their eye on him. 

Meanwhile, Zorka is irritated that he keeps being interrupted by the group of spies and representatives from the government, so he moves his lab. 

When his wife, who has been trying to gain his attention, is brutally killed, Zorka swears revenge against those trying to acquire his technology. His plan is to use his inventions to make himself a dictator. 

But Zorka's assistant, Monk, who's an escaped convict, interferes with his plans. 

Why Zorka keeps Monk around despite both is intentional and accidental hindrances is awkward. But, he keeps him around none-the-less.

He has to be stopped before he's able to follow through with his evil plan.

Despite being heavily edited from its serial version it flows rather nicely. In other words, it doesn't feel choppy. I was still able to follow the story. 

And for the movie being as old as it is, the special effects are well done. 

One thing that seems really awkward and uncomfortable was the use of footage from the Hindenburg disaster which at the time occurred two years earlier.

The footage is used to make it appears as though Zorka deliberately caused it.

Jack C. Smith (left) and Bela Lugosi.

As 35 people died in that explosion, using actual footage for a serial/ movie is in poor taste. 

Otherwise, I was invested enough in the story to see it through to the end. It's a fun watch for those interested in classic horror/ sci-fi.

Director Ford Beebe has sat in the director's chair for other serials of the period including Flash Gordon, The Green Hornet, and Secret Agent X-9. He also directed the horror movie classic The Invisible Man's Revenge. 

He and co-director Saul A. Goodkind also worked together on Buck Rogers. Goodkind also worked as a film editor for The Invisible Man's Revenge. 

The menacing face on Zorka's robot slave is the stuff of nightmares, even 80 years later. It's unforgettable.

Lugosi has a way of making his character one the audience loves to hate. He portrays Zorka well - a man who is hell bent on destruction and domination. Lugosi is clearly invested in his role.

I think, however, I would enjoy the serial more than the TV movie. I have the feeling it would be more exciting to sit through despite being longer. That's certainly not saying the movie is terrible. It just needs a little more excitement. 

65) Ghost Story (1981)

"And I will see the life run out of you."

Directory

John Irvin

Cast

Fred Astaire - Ricky Hawthorne

Melvyn Douglas - John Jaffry

Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. - Edward Wanderley

John Houseman - Sears James

Craig Wasson - David/ Don Wanderley

Alice Krige - Alma Mobley/ Eva Galli

A solid and icy ghost story needs to be told in candle light, or perhaps by a fire in the fireplace. The darkness will open the door to the mystery that'll dance in the corner of our eyes. Captivated listeners who can't turn their ears away will swear they saw something move...or was it just the candlelight?

A ghost story needs to be told by those frosted with age. Ghosts live in history. So, their stories are completely wrapped in history. 

The story teller's raspy airy voice, scarred by years of experiences, is the voice of domination, seriousness, and fear. And those in the middle of all the trepidation are the innocent, young, often naive characters. There may be love that led to sorrow, jealousy, and death. And, perhaps, there's the most burdensome secret that's carried for decades screaming for revenge. 

For fans of a good ghost story, the 1981 drama horror movie aptly called Ghost Story lives up to its expectations. It comes with dark shadows and old dusty spaces dimly illuminated. Old guys endowed with years of history behind them tell each other stories of phantasms and unusual, unkind circumstances happening to otherwise innocent and considerably younger people. Their glasses of scotch and brandy are all they have to calm their trepidation.  

It took me four months to finally grab a copy of Ghost Story. Like most horror movies I watch and review, I put in an interlibrary loan request for this one at my local public library. 

It was in transit back in March just as everything went into lockdown thanks to Covid-19. It would have arrived a day after the shut down. But it remained in library limbo the whole time until it finally arrived just a week ago. 

Sometime in my distant past, I recall seeing bits and pieces of this movie. I'm pretty sure my dad either rented it from our local video store, California Video, or it was on PBS? That was pretty much the only channel he really watched back in the day as we didn't have cable until awhile later.

Normally, my dad wasn't into drama horror films. The closest he came, as far as I remember, was movies such as 1939's Hound of the Baskervilles with Basil Rathbone, and A Christmas Carol with Alastair Sim. But, I recall him watching Ghost Story.
My guess is his attraction to this movie was its cast of Hollywood legends - Melvyn Douglas, John Houseman, Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., and Fred Astaire. In fact, this is Astaire's last movie appearance. 

It also stars veteran actress Alice Krige who has done some memorable work as the Borg Queen in Star Trek: First Contact, Thor: The Dark World, and as Christabella in the movie adaptation of Silent Hill. I plan to post some comments on that movie at a later date.   

Ghost Story is a movie that takes the horror genre to a more dramatic level. But it still has horror!

Ghosts are the embodiment of memories. That's how they're depicted in this movie, with the use of flashbacks - memories.

Based on the novel of the same name by Peter Straub, the film is set in a New England town during the middle of winter. Four wealthy men in their own winter of life have made up a gentlemen's club called "The Chowder Society." Of course, they're the only members.

Dr. John Jaffrey (Melvyn Douglas, The Changeling), Mayor Edward Wanderley (Douglas Fairbanks, Jr.), Ricky Hawthorne (Fred Astaire), and Sears James (John Houseman) meet formally on a regular basis to tell horror stories to each other. 

Very strange and severe events start occurring around the Society, starting with the death of Edward's son, David Wanderley (Craig Wasson, A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors). 

David falls to his death through the window of his high-rise apartment after finding a nude woman lying face down on his bed. 

He questions her as to who she is and where she came from. Her replies are coy and puzzling. When he turns her around, she isn't what he expects her to be. Screaming, he falls through the window several stories down crashing through the glass roof of a natatorium. 

His brother, Don Wanderley (also played by Wasson) comes home after the funeral at his dad's wishes to spend some time with him. During supper, he tells his father that he was involved with David's fiancee for a time. 

Sometime later, Edward thinks he sees his deceased son outside walking towards the town despite the icy conditions. 

He chases David, calling out to him before making his way to a bridge. By then, the figure is gone. He looks out over the frozen river below when he hears a woman's voice gently call out "man?" 

He turns to see the corpse of a woman standing right behind him. 

Terrified, he falls over the side of the bridge into the frozen water below.

The accident is ruled a suicide, but Don doesn't think his father killed himself. 

He turns to the members of the Chowder Society for help, telling them a ghost story which the audience sees in flashback.

In his story, Don is teaching at a college in Florida where he meets a secretary named Alma Mobley. 

He asks her out, and they quickly spark an intense sexual affair afterwards. 

This quickly turns into an engagement. 

During their engagement, Don starts coming to the conclusion that Alma isn't quite right. After touching her hand one particular evening, she feels as cold as a dead body. 

This is weird seeing as how passionate and physical they were before. Anyways, Don decides to break off the engagement. Of course Alma is furious, and disappears from his life. 

This puts Don into a deep depression, but Alma returns one month later by way of dating his brother, David.

He learns that the two have been seeing each other since shortly after Don broke off the engagement. And now, his brother is engaged to Alma. 

He tries to warn David about her, but he doesn't listen. 

Soon after, David is killed and Don blames it on Alma. 

This story makes the Chowders uncomfortable. Don shows them an old photograph he found among his father's possessions. It shows an unknown woman pictured with a few men, one of whom being Edward in his younger years.

Don tells the Society members the woman is a spot-on resemblance of Alma. 

It turns out the young woman in the photo is Eva Galli, and this really makes the Chowder members frightened. Jaffrey starts pleading with the other guys to admit the dark secret that ties these men together, but are afraid to say. But they immediately dismiss his request. 

Slowly, the men continue dying off one by one as a dark secret they equally share comes back to haunt them. 

After several days of letting this movie sink in, and allowing my thoughts to work with it, Ghost Story has started to grow on me. Its gruesome imagery still stands out. The vintage model of the always classic "ghost story" with the classic elements is entertaining. 

One scene in particular, which doesn't show horror and decay like the other horror scenes, shows Alma taking a bath with Don. In a playful manner, she submerges herself under water as her long brown hair floats. Don smiles for a moment and then grows concerned as she doesn't resurface. 

She quickly comes back up and starts screaming. Her appearance - hair wet against her face and the way her mouth is as wide as she can open it, and muscles tense - is unnerving. Thanks to makeup artist Dick Smith, the horrific visuals are very memorable and well done. And the horror reveals are reminiscent of old style horror films in the way the camera pans over to the grotesques faces that will scare the characters and the audience. They're not meant as mere jump scares. These scares actually serve a purpose to the story.

The soundtrack is supposed to be sinister but sounds more like carousel tunes. It doesn't fit at all with the tone of the movie. It's goofy, distracting, and laughable. 

Guilt, shame, and sexual aggression are heavy themes in this film. The effects of sin can be just as hideous as the sin itself. 

I haven't read Straub's book, but there was a lot of negative remarks made about Ghost Story from audiences who read the book and compare the film to the source material.
It does drag a bit, and confuses me a little. For instance, if Don's story about Alma is true, that would mean *spoiler* she's a ghost. And being a ghost, she somehow managed to get a job as a secretary at the college Don teaches at. And, as a ghost she had a very intimate relationship with Don that led to an engagement. It didn't work because he broke it off. Still, that is one crazy afterlife. 

It seems that we're meant to believe Don's story. He does tell his father earlier that he slept with his brother's fiancé. He also shows the Chowder Society that photo and says the girl in the picture looks like Alma. Maybe I need to read the book.

Regardless, there's less talking (exposition) and a whole lot of showing. That's an element of cinematic story telling I love. Show! Don't tell. The movie knows what it's doing in that regard. I'd welcome a remake for this movie so long as the writing is great. Not because the original is bad. Ghost stories are meant to be told again and again. Each time, a change can be welcomed. 

It's a classic ghost story. Sometimes it takes just the basic, yet perfect, elements to tell a satisfyingly unsettling ghost tale.With its old, dark atmosphere, its grotesque make-up affects, its antique charm, and its cloud of mystery wafting from the beginning to the end, Ghost Story has an urban legend, home-spun feel about it. 

 

64) Awakening the Zodiac (2017)

"This is the Zodiac speaking..."

Director

Jonathan Wright

Cast

Shane West - Mick Branson

Leslie Bibb - Zoe Branson

Matt Craven - Harvey

Stephen McHattie - Zodiac

There was a time when I took interest in the Zodiac murders that plagued my part of the world - the San Francisco Bay Area. 

I became interested in these murders for a short while after watching the 2007 movie Zodiac with Robert Downy, Jr., Jake Gyllenhaal, and Mark Ruffalo. How a murderer could be so hard to find after toying the law enforcement was absolutely intriguing.

I read the book Zodiac by Robert Graysmith who's the main character of the movie. After reading it, I had the impression that maybe the Zodiac Killer had some assistance. Perhaps not in murdering people, but at least in alluding authorities. 

Awakening the Zodiac starts in 1968 with the murder of two teenagers, David Arthur Faraday and Betty Lou Jensen, who are parked alone on Lake Herman Road in Benecia, Calif., just shortly after they have an encounter with a police officer. This, of course, is based on the true case involving the Zodiac. 

The officer disturbs their romantic privacy because they're not allowed to park there at night. 

And not even one minute goes by as the officer leaves the frame when another car pulls up. The driver gets out, approaches the car, and shoots both teens. 

And I'm left wondering where that cop went! He had to still be there. He couldn't have driven off that fast. 

Afterwards, the movie transitions to modern day Virginia where Mick Bradley (Shane West) and his wife, Zoe Branson (Leslie Bibb), are trying to turn their financial instability into something sturdy. 

Mick does so by purchasing an abandoned storage locker in the hopes of finding valuables and selling them for profit.

Mick goes halfsies on the storage unit with his pawnbroker buddy, Harvey (Matt Craven- Jacob's Ladder, X-Men: First Class). 

At first, it looks as though the contents from the locker are meager until Harvey discovers a few film reels. 

It turns out the films are of the Zodiac filming himself committing the murder depicted at the beginning of the movie. Another depicts what appears to be the murders of Bryan Hartnell and Cecelia Shepherd which took place in 1969 at Lake Berryessa in Napa, Calif. While Cecelia died from being repeatedly stabbed, Bryan did not. 

The trio find out that discovering this new evidence against the Zodiac could lead to a huge monetary reward. 

So, they break into the storage facility office in order to locate the owner of the locker. They find it's registered to a "Betty Ferguson." 

So, they drive to her home which appears uninhabited, and break in. But they find an old man inside who still lives there. 

It turns out the old man is Betty's son, Benjamin. He and his shotgun find the three intruders and is about to blow them away. They manage to talk their way out of it, however. 

Betty's husband, by the way, is Balthazar. I don't know if the fact all three of their names start with "B" means anything, or is some kind of Easter egg, but by the end of the movie I didn't even care. 

Those unfamiliar with the Zodiac murders, the killer sent coded messages to police and local Bay Area newspapers. While some codes have been deciphered, one particular code has yet to be decoded. And this code supposedly contains the Zodiac Killer's identity according to a letter he wrote to the press. . 

After reviewing more of the found footage, Harvey spots a code decipher briefly in one of the shots. It's a clue long sought after for 50 years.

He uses this brief clip to try and decipher the Zodiac's code that supposedly contains his identity. And he does. 

Off camera, somehow the Zodiac figures out what's happening and does what he can to stop them all. 

How the killer figures all of this out is beyond me. I understand it goes without depiction that the Zodiac knows his locker is sold off. And we catch glimpses of him, especially when he murders the manager of the locker facility. So, he could have gathered some information from her. Or, do we assume that since he's the elusive Zodiac, he's just really smart. After all, he's "elusive." It's not clear. Overall, this movie is predictable and is lacking substance. 

Anyone whose seen enough movies knows it's not going to end well when civilians take it upon themselves to investigate an infamous murderer, especially one as slippery as the Zodiac. 

But how did the Zodiac know Harvey was conducting his own private investigation and attempting to decipher the infamous coded letter authorities were unable to decode for so long? 

There's a lot of room for stronger writing in this movie. 

The purpose of this movie is to entertain and keep us suspense and trepidation until the resolution at the end. I suppose it fulfills that expectation. 

And I was intrigued to find out what was going to happen in the climatic third act. Still, despite that, if it wasn't for this blog and my writing about Awakening the Zodiac, I'd probably soon forget I ever watched this. There's some slight gore and gashing, but it's more of a thriller than a horror movie.

It's an interesting premise for a movie. But it's weak in writing. Its pace and energy is a bit listless. And its story is too predictable.

Shane West and Leslie Bibb in Awakening the Zodiac.